How To Identify Fake Supplement – A few simple tips

February 16, 2015

For any regular Gym goer, professional or amateur bodybuilder, or athlete living in India, one of the foremost question is of the supplements (and also of to identify fake supplement). Unlike western world, Indian market is still in its diapers when it comes to quality nutritional supplements like Protein, Creatine, Glutamine, fat burners and even multi-vitamins for that matter. These are just a few that I named here which are considered as necessary supplements for anyone who is slightly serious about getting that 6 pack muscular body that we all adore but the list of supplements is of course endless. We now have a huge market for these supplements in India but unfortunately do not have one well established or reliable company that manufactures onshore. Because we all want to buy a quality product that would give faster results, we end up buying and importing the products from mostly American companies.

Now there are two ways to buy a Western product. Either you buy online from an American website and have them ship which will result in you paying more than double the price due to the shipping charges and import duties involved. Or you buy from an Indian reseller who will offer you the same product at a slightly lesser cost. If you bought your supplement from a reputed American website like Bodybuilding.Com, you can be rest assured that you received a genuine product even though you paid quite a cost for it but what if you bought from a local reseller? The first question that arises in everyone’s mind is how do you know if the product is genuine?

First of all, it is important to know how these resellers offer you the supplement at a lesser price than a reputed online website. I spoke to a few resellers about this and the answer to this question is actually simple. They somehow either manage to slip the shipment past customs without paying any import duties or they manage to pay a lesser than required duty. This is how they sell it in the market at lower rate and whatever duties they did not pay becomes their profits. This of course applies to someone selling the actual product. Others just manufacture a similar powder like substance and sell it in the packaging of a well reputed supplement company. Believe it or not, there is a huge amount of fake supplements available in Indian market today. Some of these are manufactured within the country and some in China. They do a quite a great job at packaging and you won’t be able to tell the different by just one look. So how do you know if the supplement you bought is genuine or fake? How can you tell the difference between a genuine or fake supplement? Where do you look to confirm the genuinity of the supplement in front of you? How do you identify a fake supplement before you buy it? Or how do you identify and stop using a fake supplement after you have bought it?

Unfortunately, there is no sure shot way of telling this before buying. With pre-work out supplements, you can tell after you started to use it. If there is a boost in energy as the product promised, you can the deal was real but if there isn’t, you would know you have a fake supplement in hand. But with other supplements like Protein, you cannot even tell while you are still using it. After you have used it for a while and did not see any gains, then only you would come to know that someone sold you a fake product and you have no idea what you had been drinking for past couple of months. There is however a few things that you can look at before buying or within first weeks of usage that can help you determine whether the supplement is genuine or not.

1. The Packing says it all: Believe it or not, if you are careful enough you can catch a fake product before buying it just by reading the label carefully. Main aim of fake supplements is to make maximum profits and they also tend to cut the cost using low quality labels. No matter how well they do it, there will always remain a difference in the packing. What exactly should you be looking for? First of all, look for the quality of the print. If you have bought the same product before that was genuine, refer to that. Try to match the two together and you will notice that the label on the fake product would look like someone just printed it in their backyard. Take a look at the following image for example.

How To Identify Fake Supplement

Someone faked this BSN True Mass but while they were printing the labels, they misspelled “Purest” and it read “Puest Mass Gains”. On another fake whey protein supplement that I came across, the ingredient was spelled as “Whey Cincentrate”.

Another thing to look for is how well the label was glued to the box. Sounds a little ridiculous but it is true. I have seen at least 10 different samples of fake supplements and on all of them, the label started to come off within a week. In the case of the following image, the box is still sealed pack and the label is coming off.

How To Identify Fake Supplement

How To Identify Fake Supplement

The above pictures are from a fake supplement. A genuine BSN True Mass looks like this.

How To Identify Fake Supplement

As soon as you open up the Jar, look at the seal closely. If there is no seal, it is fake. If there is in fact a seal but loosely placed, it is fake again. If it is genuine, seal on the bottle would have proper edges and uniformly attached. If it is open or loose from any side, it is fake.

Look for the hologram and logo and you will easily be able to tell the difference. Look at the MRP sticker. Popular brands have a detailed MRP sticker on them whereas the fake ones would just put a sticky with price on it. Other things to look for is the quality of graphics of the packaging and its clarity. Fake products usually have low quality container, graphics , labels and text.

2. Taste will be too sweet: This can be a little hard specially if you are using that particular supplement for the first time. A quick reference should be the sugar levels in the supplement. If it is fake, it is bound to taste a little too sweet. How? In the example of the fake mass that I reference in the image above, I found out that it was not a supplement at all. Within the BSN packing, they were selling a powder for Vanilla Shake. There was no whey protein at all so they were bound to sweeten it up a little to dodge the taste.

3. Will not dissolve completely:If your supplement was for real, it would dissolve quite smoothly but if it was fake, you will have a tough time dissolving it. Even after shaking for a while, there will still be a few clumps left to chew on in the end.

4. Too eager to sell:If the person you are buying from is too eager to sell and is ready to dip the price to what you are quoting, dump him. The product is fake again. There is no way that he can keep reducing the price if he has imported a genuine supplement.

5. MRP Sticker: Another way to identify a fake supplement. Take a closer look and see if it looks like someone just glued it to the package.

6. Poor Quality Jar: The container will be of poor quality, made of cheap plastic.

7. Density: These fake protein powders are usually Soy powders because of which the supplement would feel really thick for a Whey protein.

5. Unknown things in the powder: Sounds stupid? It is not. I once looked at a fake ON Whey Protein and within the powder, I found pieces of plastic like substance, had no clue what it was. Hell, I even found small gravels in it. In a fake BSN supplement, I found this wooden piece as in the image below.

How To Identify Fake Supplement

6. Lot No: This may not be applicable of all but several popular brands have a lot number printed on the package that you can go online and verify. Below is an example of a fake lot number that I found.

How To Identify Fake Supplement

Now the big question is, what is it that you will find in fake supplements? What are they made of? Well that is a tough one to answer. I have seen supplements that read “Whey” but actually contained highly sweetened Soya flour. Another one that promised a gain in strength was just glucose powder. A BSN True Mass was in fact a Vanilla Shake powder. Honestly, expect anything but yeah, this anything can actually be dangerous and give undesired results like sudden gain in fat or worse.

So how do you buy a genuine product? Sure shot way is to buy from a reputed and trusted store that is ready to give you an official TAX PAID BILL in which the TIN# AND VAT# of the seller is clearly printed. If you want further assurance, go to the VAT department website (it is different for each state so just Google it) and put in the TIN# in search field and you would instantly know whether the TIN# printed on the bill was a fake or genuine.

Click on the links below to read my reviews on some of they whey proteins I have used.

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47 comments

DebJune 22, 2017 at 4:05 pm

I bought a Ultimate Nutrition Prostar 2.39kg jar of flavour Chocolate Creme. In India Ultimate Nutrition official dealer is Kar Enterprise. But I order this from Aamzon.in. and importer sticker is different.
I mailed ultimate nutrition (www.ultimatenutrition.com) giving the details of Lot number and Mfg Date and EXP date. They replied me saying it is an authenticate product. But the taste which I ordered now is slightly different form what I am using for last past 1.5 months(this Jar importer was Kar Enterprise). I am little bit scared , which one is the original one and why there is taste difference. Please help me what to do in this scenario.

Sir can a neulife store sell fake suppliment..
Like his employee can remove powder from isopure and refill with crap and seal it again from top. Cause isopure and on does not have inner seal( its thr only in and above cap) and not on lid.
Also i want to confirm is it possible fr such a big importer. Also the protien mfg is 2015 and exp 10/2017 so should we buy product few months before expire date considering it will finish in a month.

I always buy from importer in quantity for a year but once i buy pre workout from elante mall at chandigarh , its to sweet and it make heart beats to fast , and i cannt sleep . Can you tell me the lab adress or phone no .where should i tested it original or fake , or which test .

printing errors can happen to even the biggest company, labels can peal off of any product due to various weather conditions and cold etc… while there may be some fake products marketed out there, I beleive they are very, very few and far between.

Hai. Sir,,I brought muscle pharm combat from Dubai..is there any chance to get fake product from there..i brought it from Dubai Mall life style nutrition..is it original how can I trust to that product..reply plz

I purchased a few BSN products. The packaging seems close to genuine, but, there’s a couple spots that are questionable. The Cellmass 2.0 does not have the BSN Finish First logo/seal embossed on the top of the grey cap, Beta-Alaine has a white nutritional facts (if that makes since), Syntha-6 Isolate has no EXP date, Whey DNA EXP date can rub off and the powder smells funny, Evotest has no EXP date and the powder looks a bit gritty as if It’s old. Cellmass 2.0, Beta-Alaine, Amino X, Evotest, and Whey DNA don’t have the http://www.bsnonline.com website on the silver holographic ring around the lower part of the label. Although I do take in consideration, I’m not one to conclude easily. Because I understand that products can vary. Some stocks could be old or new and have slight changes. There are also other warehouses. And just because a genuine product is cheaper, doesn’t mean It’s counterfeit. I’ve seen cheap designer fragrances that were counterfeits, while, even though I found the same designer fragrances the same price as those counterfeits, they were actually genuine, and far cheaper than retail. I’m a little new to BSN products, though, so, I can’t easily compare.

Hi sir I literally had a hard time finding a genuine whey supplement.Your blog was very helpful.Actually my gym trainer is insisting me to buy a whey isolate named Nutrabio whey isolate which is not manufactured in India.And he tells me that we get the product directly from the distributor so the price is less.Thr original price of the product is around $79 =₹5500approx when I searched it on the internet but he’s offering me the same product for ₹3000.What are the chances of it being fake based on the price difference.And what do you suggest shall I buy it?

Do not buy brother, definitely a fake. I have seen several instances where a Gym trainer or coach offered a fake supplement to unsuspecting newbies at the gym. I am sure he must be pushing you over and over again, insisting that you must buy supplement or else there is no use. Selling a supplement for half the price just means one thing, he is selling fake. Do not fall for it. Buy only a genuine product.

vargis isir, i just joined a gym n my PT ask me to pay for whey protein, i did the same and he brought a a brand PSN(rp-sports nutrition) matrix super whey pack, which is marketed in india by sara india pvt. ltd….
sir plz tell me is there anu brand as such PSN exists n is this product is genuine….

Performance Sports Nutrition (PSN) is an Australian based company bro so yes, the company is genuine but I have never used their products so cannot really tell you if they are any good. How much did you pay for their Whey Protein?

Hello sir i bought optimum nutrition gold standard whey from neulife. I have chosen choclate flavour. But on official optimum Nutrition website there is no choclate flavour. I am really afraid.Please tell something about it. Why are they selling choclate flavour when there is no such flavour on official optimum nutrition site.

Hello sir i bought on gold standard whey from neulife. I have chosen choclate flavour. But on official on website there is no choclate flavour. I am really afraid.Please tell something about it. Why they are selling choclate flavour when there is no such flavour on official choclate site.

Hi, there is this new(not sure, just heard of it) type of protein called Whey Depot from Dave Pharmaceuticals, which is kind of cheap for 10lb bag… if you can help out and maybe figure out if this is a legit product/brand. Apparently manufactured in the USA.

Or any adverse effects on the body like bloating look, water retention etc? How long have you used it? Some of these fake supplements have chemicals in them that will create a lot of water retention giving a bloating look, trying to trick the user in thinking that they are gaining.

arvind sahOctober 14, 2016 at 9:19 am

HI PPL……………..I bought Mr. Hyde Zero from Fitzone shop in Delhi…..its a piece of crap. Absolutely fake!!!! i feel nausea and super ill…have not been able to recover since then……it gives no effect was a pre workout does within 15/20 mins. its poor in taste n quality. Please avoid buying anything such stuff even protien powers from these shops in Delhi. They are all FAKE!!!!!!!

I know it might sound fishy but I bought musclepharm creatine and glutamine + bcaa ( weider , in tablet form ) through Fitzone store. I was stupid to not ask for the receipt then and there, I might have avoided purchasing it ! But now that I have spent huge money I tried asking him a lot of times and he said he works with the grey market and I can get the supplements get checked in lab and he would take them back if proven to be fake . I have already opened the boxes :/ . Some people told me that generally it is proteins which have adulteration but I have no clue . I would completely avoid supplements in future . It’s overhyped crap.